A panel by George Cruikshank 1844

It is difficult to talk about valuable works in the specific tradition of Töpffer, whose work was first published in Geneva in 1833, and later appeared in England (1841) and the United States (1842). The most readily available evidence would seem to indicate that those who most closely followed his model did so with lesser skill, while more accomplished artists only partially capitalized upon Töpffer's innovations. "Töpffer in America," a lengthy, illustrated feature in Comic Art Magazine #3, excerpts panels from several highly derivative works based on Töpffer's model, most apparently blatant rip-offs by less ambitious artists. More accomplished picture stories by artists such as George Cruikshank follow Töpffer but use conventions from earlier picture stories (such as Hogarth's). Unlike Töpffer, Cruikshank retains a uniform panel size and continues to treat each panel individually as a balanced composition. Further, Cruikshank's work retains a fairly detailed drawing style. Töpffer championed a method of reproduction called "autography" that allowed him to draw directly upon a reproductive stone. He found that his printing method and his stories both favored a quick line: "in the picture-story — a series of sketches where accuracy is unimportant but, on the other hand, a clear, rapid expression of the essential idea is imperative — nothing can compare for speed, convenience, or economy to the technique of autography" (Wiese, 5). Reproduction aside, he further declared: "The brusque attack that violates forms by leaping over their details is far more spirited a thing than a prudent sort of skill that goes after each detail and displays its own talent in rendering it. Especially for humorous or whimsical subjects, a clumsy daring that jumps somewhat rudely, with all fours, on the end in view (at the risk of missing a few details and smashing a few forms) has usually hit the mark better than a talent more practiced but more timid, which ambles slowly down all the meanders of elegant execution and careful imitation" (8).  continue...